Thursday 13 March 2008

My First Tag Ever - The Book Tag ! :)

I'm a voracious reader...in fact at one time, you could say I was addicted to books. Both my parents are voracious readers and naturally both my brother and I followed suit. My parents bought a wide variety of books for us. Right since a very young age I was exposed to both English and Marathi books written by Indian, British, American and Russian authors.

Picture this: All four of us sitting in the same room...not talking to each other for hours on end...because each one is totally absorbed in the book they are reading ! This was quite a regular scenario at home.

My love for books turned into addiction and lasted throughout my teenage and well beyond it. In the family circles, the favourite funny stories that are repeatedly told and laughed upon are the ones where "She was standing right there in front of it with a book in hand and the milk just simply spilt over and she found out only when she smelled it !" or "Do you know why the rice is overcooked..." Oh well ! :)

So when I saw that this tag was up for grabs, I jumped at the opportunity to revisit old books and book-memories (yes, there are those too...but more about that in another post perhaps).

I'm very excited since this is my first tag ever :) Here goes:

A book that made you laugh: Asterix and Obelix, Archies, Life of Pi by Yann Martel (I was laughing out loudly while reading the first few chapters), All of Georges Mikes' books, Shakuntala Paranjapye - Sense & Nonsense
A book that made you cry: Any story of kindness, suffering, loss of innocence will make me cry...right from Chicken Soup for the Soul stories to The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni
A book that scared you: A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah, A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseni. The kind of suffering, cruelty that humans can inflict on other humans scares me.
A book that disgusted you: None really.
A book you loved in elementary school: Everything Enid Blyton, Russian books translated into English and Marathi that my mother used to buy for my brother and I.
A book you loved in middle/junior high school: The Malory towers, St. Clares, Famous Five, Five Findouters, Three Investigators, Secret Seven, The Three Investigators
A book you loved in high School: Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys
A book you loved in college: Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird, Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingstone Seagull
A book that challenged your identity: Hmm...let me see...OK...The Alchemist by Paul Coelho...it didnt really challenge my identity as much as it helped me become clearer and more convinced about the choices I make.
A series you love: Asterix and Obelix, Agatha Christie, All of Enid Blyton's series
Horror: Not my cup of tea !
Science fiction: I don't know whether this strictly classifies as science fiction...I think its an intersection of science fiction and comedy...The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - A Trilogy in five parts
Your favourite fantasy: Antoine Saint du Exupéry - The Little Prince
Your favourite mystery: Undoubtedly Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie.
Your favourite biography: I haven't read may biographies actually...the one I can randomly remember having read is Lee Iacocca's autobiography and I enjoyed it quite a bit...also Maverick by Ricardo Semler...which makes for highly educative reading.
Your favourite “Coming of age” book: Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingstone Seagull
Your favourite classic: Now why is there a need to even ask this ? Obiously, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Your favourite romance book: Again, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen :)

Tell me about yours... :)

Zoya
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Wednesday 12 March 2008

Being Judgemental !

I have discovered that the two most important things on which I form opinions about people are how they behave with other beings and the quality of their work.

Zoya

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